A few weeks ago I found myself staying in a hotel in Galway (that’s Galway, Ireland).
Two clearly American blokes entered the breakfast room and sat at the table next to me. The cheery waitress, who sounded South African, breezed up and asked them what they wanted. I think they both plumped for the “full Irish breakfast” (rashers, sausages, eggs, maybe mushrooms and baked beans, that sort of thing). And to drink: tea or coffee? “Coffee” says one. “Coke” says the other. The waitress had to ask him again. “Coca Cola” he confirmed. It was obvious that she had never been asked for Coke at that time of the morning (08.00) before, even though she must have encountered zillions of Americans.
Is drinking Coke with your breakfast a common thing across the Atlantic? Or did I just encounter a weirdo?
I usually drink a can of Diet Coke in the car on the way to work in the morning after breakfast although I don’t have one on days I don’t drive to work and wouldn’t drink a Coke with breakfast.
Have been to Galway and loved it. Lots of music and the crack and all that.
Have had beer for breakfast. Once. Funny how it goes down awfully smoothly after the first one.
When I was much younger I would take a Coke with breakfast after a night of hard partying. I liked the thirst-quenching aspect of it and wanted that more than the caffeine.
I used to work with a woman who had a Diet Pepsi every single morning. (We opened at 7:00am, she’d have the Pepsi around 9.)
My older son still laughs at the night, years and years ago, when we left him with an Irish babysitter, a sweet young girl who was working in the States for the summer.
“Let’s have some coffee,” she suggested at 9pm at night. Older son was 10, younger one was 4. the kid thought this was great and showed her where the coffee was, figured out how to make it and had some. (He’d never done this before.)
We could never decide whether the girl grew up having coffee at a young age or just really wanted a slug of caffeine.
I’ve started drinking coffee or tea in the AM, but for years I had a Diet Pepsi for breakfast. It’s caffeine, just like coffee or tea. I can’t stand orange juice, and I liked something cold in the morning. I think it is normal, at school I see lots of students drinking soda early in the mornings.
I drink either a Diet Dr Pepper or Diet Coke with breakfast. I’m not a big coffee or tea fan, so it is just another way to get your daily caffiene fix.
It is very common in the southern US anyways. Sodas, even iced tea are pretty common breakfast drinks. Me, I’m all about the coffee first thing in the morning. I want it strong, black and chock full of caffiene.
Me too – I generally have Diet Coke (or Diet Pepsi) with breakfast. Gotta have that caffeine – and I’ve never cared for coffee. And while I like tea, I’m often too lazy to brew it first thing in the morning. FWIW, I find that Coke with breakfast is more popular in the southern US.
I don’t drink coffee…don’t find hot drinks refreshing…or tea, so it used to be Coke or Pepsi in the morning for me, but generally in place of breakfast. If I actually ate breakfast I’d have milk or juice, but sometime during the morning Coke would figure in. It was my only source of caffeine, and I never thought it strange, though the coffee drinkers, who should have understood the craving for caffeine, did.
Now, however, I am caffeine free, though there are still days I long for that tiny buzz. I just can’t drink more than a few ounces of pop at a time now, and I don’t want to get hooked again.
Sometimes I’ll have a diet Coke in the morning. I’m in South Florida where it’s often quite hot, and hot coffee sometimes isn’t all that attractive to me.
From what I can see, most of the affirmative replies are from people in the Midwest or South. Is Maryland ‘South’? I’m a native Californian, and I don’t recall ever seeing anyone have Coke or Pepsi with his breakfast. Of course, here in Washington, everyone drinks coffee.
I suspect you met a representiative of a minority.
However, I’m also a representative of that minority. Part of it is simple addiction - I need my Elixer of Life! But, also part of it is simply that making tea is much more difficult than getting out some Coke in the morning.
Another Southerner checking in. My dad has had Diet Coke with breakfast ever since I can remember. Before I gave up the caffeine, I was the same. Now I start my day with ice cold Diet 7-Up. I don’t like the taste of coffee.
Per the OP, I’ve never been in a hotel, resturant, or fast food breakfast setting where soda wasn’t available.
I’m sipping a diet coke as I read this thread, and it’s 8:30 in the A. M. here in the Southern U. S. I think it is probably a southern thing, as my friends and I regularly order soft drinks with breakfast and no one bats an eye.
Mostly it’s the convenience of having a can of caffeine I can throw in my bag as I leave my house. That, and coffee is just entirely unappealing.
)